I mean it’s our best option, but look at what we got this weekend in the latest mad grab for power. We’ve got an anti-vaxxer conspiracy theorist revealed as a NZ First candidate (read the Stuff piece from yesterday and weep), and we’ve got a ruling party announcing no tax on fruit and vege, in a completely pointless policy that even their own Finance Minister hates.
It feels like a world gone mad, but then I have to remind myself, we voted for this, and people may yet vote again for it. Democracy in action can be a terrifying ride. I said on Mike’s show last Friday that I worry about the Kiwis with short memories who are saying they’ll vote for Winston again this time round.
My colleague Kerre Woodham put it best when she said, ‘I’m sure there are intelligent people who vote NZ First, but I’ve never met or heard of one’. To throw a vote to Winston is to waste your vote. The people voting for Winston are doing it because they say he’ll ‘get rid of all the Maori signs’, or he’ll ‘get rid of all the gender nonsense.’ I mean those two statements alone give you some insight into the NZ First voter’s mindset.
But what these people fail to understand is how MMP works. They’re voting for Winston like he’s going to be Prime Minister, like he’s going to have enough sway to move the needle and change things in this country, like the bigger parties are just going to do everything he says. Like he's going to be in government.
Think again.
Firstly, he's not NZ First he's Winston first. His goals for this country are less about caring about what’s right for it and more about what’s beneficial to him. He appointed a losing party to government in 2017, ignoring everyone who voted for him, just because he wanted to take the biggest bribe and settle some scores. He abandoned his base, for power. And once there, he allowed that government to implement all the things he now rails against.
As Richard Prebble wrote the other day in his Herald column, “New Zealand First was no handbrake. Peters was part of a Government that issued compulsory vaccination mandates and developed co-governance. Only he would have the nerve to campaign against policies he made possible. If history is a guide, then the more Peters rules out supporting Labour, the more likely it is that he will support that party.” All voting for NZ First will do, is split the right vote further and make for a more chaotic outcome, or worse, push a left leaning coalition back into power.
For all the people who bemoan the state of the country and ‘that’s why they’re voting for Winston’, they’re rolling the dice on no change at all, on keeping status quo – but potentially worse. A coalition of Labour, the Greens, Te Pati Māori and NZ First.
Let that sink in for a minute. It’s not a vote for change at all. It’s a vote for a circus act. For those who're voting for Winston because they ‘don’t like Luxon’, you either want change or you don’t. Think about the party and the policies, not just the person.
For those who're voting for Winston because they like him personally, bear in mind he'll be one year off 80 next year and he won’t be hanging around. It’s more for him about scoring points, proving something, making his mark and then buggering off to go fishing again. So if you vote for him thinking he’ll be sticking around, I think you’ll be disappointed.
When I give my thoughts on Winston, invariably people text me that they’re - 'never listening to me on radio again'. I hope that’s true. The head in the sand Winston worshippers I can live without.
Kate Hawkesby is a political broadcaster on Newstalk ZB - her articles can be seen HERE.
8 comments:
But darlin’….. these words of wisdom are tainted by your use of such a misnomer as “an anti-vaxxer”. Have you not been looking and listening either? NZDSOS, New Zealander Doctors Speaking Out With Science, will be at Eden Park on the 16th of September with key note international speakers for the day.
Get yourself and your journalist pals down there and try some “anti-vaxxer spin’ after that…. I dare you!!
There is more to NZ First than Winston. Shane has a logic and clarity (despite the endless metaphors) of rational thinking which seems to elude most modern politicians. An anti vaxxer in a party is far less of a threat then a majority maori caucus all bent on promotion of maori twaddle and preferential apartheid like favouritism of maori. NZ First will likely provide the backbone Luxon seems to lack.
So now a Stuff hit piece is to be taken seriously? No fan of anti Vax, but they are more open to debate than any Stuff 'reporter' will ever be.
Well the vaccine never worked and everyone still got covid. We were sold an absolute fraud. The only thing that gave me immunity was catching covid and getting immune the natural way. Many people including nurses and doctors were sceptics of the covid vaccine and some with heart conditions lost their lives taking it. Did you see winston's speech to alan jones australian journalist recently? It is on winston's facebook page. He quite rightly states that australians get a vote on the voice whereas kiwis didn't. I personally will not be voting for winston but I.understand why some people are. His views are somewhat similar to david seymour's. If they don't make up with winston, then a labour/green/ te pati nightmare could be the reality for nzers who stay.
Please name the “anti-vaxx conspiracy theorist” rather than casting aspersions on everyone candidate.
I've always voted National and never voted Winston. This year I am either ticking Winston or Act and party vote National. I was a woman senior manager at 30 in NZ for a fortune 500 company - I'm not a rocket scientist - but I am not stupid. National and Act policies do NOT take care of the people who are not educated and not capable of getting ahead. We have all seen that. So a handbrake of some sort is needed to make sure they take care of everyone who shares our society who is trying to keep up. I'm not talking about social engineering type stuff, or people who refuse to work - I'm talking about the ability to earn a buck that covers the cost of living. Frankly I don't trust National to take care of people who don't know how to get ahead and we've had a pretty dismal education system for a couple of decades. This is why I am looking for a middle person to look out for the "little guy" if that is possible - as I don't like seeing all the "little guys" struggling so badly in NZ today.
Kate, your quote "read the Stuff piece from yesterday and weep" just blew your comment on the anti-vaxxer out the window.
As though anyone with half a brain would read Stuff and expect to get a balanced viewpoint.
I don't happen to agree with your views on anti-vaxxers, but we're all entitled to our own opinion.
As for NZFirst, it highlights the dearth of political talent in this country that 80-year old Winston has now clawed himself back into contention to make it back to parliament after his chequered political history.
That's probably the saddest thing to take away from this.
I agree with Helen ( maybe an old classmate ?) that there is a desperate need for the population to start hearing the whole truth on vaccinations. It is a far from trivial topic and the way the bio-pharmaceutical complex, an international syndicate of powerful organisations completely took over our lives is disturbing, and it still has the power to do so again.
Failing attendance at the NZDSOS talk, listen to Dr Peter McCullough,on Reality Check Radio:' Systematic Review of Autopsy Findings and the Wilful Blindness of Doctors and Turbo Cancers'. There is some good advice here on detoxification of the spike molecules that cumulatively build up in your body after Covid vaccinations.
I would vote for Winston alone, for his standing out against this powerful evil that beset us.
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